Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-02-04
Ght essex County 9trald.
ISLAND poNp, FEBRUARY Z, tss7.
A SERIOUS CoNIHLAINr.

NOT long since resident OF 4
thrifty New England village re.
marked that it was 4 matter of re-
greet that the sons Of the most enter
prising and valuable citizens did not
promise to be as useful men as their
fathers were and had been. The
fathers as a rule had acquired prop
erty aud influence by enterprise and
industry. They began with little,
and, while by no means wealthy,
they were the men upon whom the
community relied for its enterprise
and its business. The sons as a rule
had grown up with good advan-
tages, but instead of being required
TO learn the business in which their
fathers were prosperous, they were
permitted to grow up in idleuess. If
their parents had been as poor as
their grandparents, these young
men would have been put to work
at something, but as they were not
they grew up in idleness or chose
pursuits in which were no opportuni-
ties for education. They could have
entered any legitimate Business on
better terms than their fathers, but
they showed no disposition or ambi-
ton to do so. What is the cause of
this apparent decadence? One need
not look far for it. The too COM
mon idea is that the chief end in
gaining property is the leisure that
it can afford to those who have it.
This is doubtless the idea of thou
sands of men who have achieved a
competency. They remember that
their early lives were full of toll
and privation, and although IN the
full maturity Of manhood, the last
thing which they would have for
themselves would be al aimless leis-
ure, they take pride in the fact of
being able to prevent their sons
from such lives as were their early
years. The fathers attend to their
affairs, toll early and late, because
they are used to it, but they permit
their sons to grow up withsthe idea
that their earlier years at least are
to be free from care and toll. They
are not taught the trades or the avo-
cations in which their fathers have
achieved good names and compe-
tency. Too often they are not kept
at school, but are permitted to
spend the years which should he
devoted to preparation for success
full lives in purposeless idleness.
Thus they are the natura! and al
most sure victims Of every vice and
dissipation. Many Of them are
wrecks when they should be enter
ing upon honorable careers. Many
who do not become worse than use
less during these years attain man
hoods years without trade, without
practical education, and, worse than
all, without manly purpose. They
are the loafers and the shirkers-
the drones-and they are made SO
by the coddling of parents, There
is only one compensation for this
loss of power, and that is found in
the fact that in this country it is
but three generations from shirt
sleeves to shirt-sleeves, from me-
chances frock to mechanics frock
again. The second generation,
grown up in incidence, run through
with the accumulations of the first,
leaving the third to begin at the
bottom Of the ladder again. We
need new teaching in regard to the
early lives of young men; and that
teaching should be that respect
able avocation is the natural safe
guard of every young man, and that
no young man can be so rich that be
should be permitted to look forward
to life even of innocent id!eness.
Toll in some direction is as necessary
to the development of manly charac-
ter and vigor as is food to the nour-
ishment of the body.